


Wish I Might

by Tricksterburd



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Might add more tags later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-30
Updated: 2012-07-19
Packaged: 2017-11-08 21:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/447848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tricksterburd/pseuds/Tricksterburd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Be careful what you wish for."  Truer words were never spoken, and it's The Spine's fault that they all had to learn this lesson.  Adjusting to a new body is hard; you think after one hundred plus years they'd know how a body works, even if it's not their own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pinocchio

**Author's Note:**

> This is the result of far too many nights staying up to 3am. Those of you responsible, you know who you are. Chapters will vary between angst and fluff. It's a bit angsty in the first two chapters, but will be fluff machines right after. I don't own SPG.

Mr. Reed had finally bought Jon that blue-ray of Pinocchio.  And it had been watched, non-stop, for almost three days.  Spine had refused, citing that he had watched it more than enough when it was on VHS.  He finally caved, though, one night when The Jon promised to make him coffee.  The Jon never made coffee.  It was always worth doing something if Jon was legitimately going to do a favor for you. 

And when the credits rolled, Jon ran to the window dragging Spine with him.

“Come on Spine, we gotta make a wish on a star!”

“The Jon, it’s just a story.”

“A real one right?”

“No, Jon, _just_ a story.  As in, _not_ real.”

“Please Spine?  Just make a wish?”

“Alright alright.”

“Star light, star bright, first star we see tonight!”

Jon started up the rhyme, pointing to the faint star that could be seen through the light pollution.  Spine sighed, humoring Jon and finding the star in question and trying to figure out what to do or say.  This was not his area of study.  Humor Jon.  What to wish for?

The ability to taste coffee?  The chance to actually sleep not just power down?  Be human for a change?  That was too good to be true.  But, if it made Jon happy, why not?

‘ _I wish I may, I wish I might, make me human, please, tonight._ ’

Spine pulled his eyes from the star, watching Jon as he closed his and wished an essay.  What could that robot _possibly_ want?  He had gotten his video.  Oh well.  Lifting himself from the floor the silvery ‘bot left his counterpart to his talking to stars.

Mr. Michael Reed was awoken by a sound he hadn’t heard in the manor in ages.  Namely; a shriek of pure, unbridled, terror.  No alarm clock could ever get Mr. Reed out of bed so fast.  No earth quake could ever wake him up so completely.  No amount of automatonic shenanigans could ever give him such a heart attack as a scream that woke the dead.  There was only a brief delay as Reed, tangled in his sheets, had to fight his way out of the cocoon he had built around himself during the night before tearing down the halls and steps and maze that was the Walter Manor.

What he found in the small room that kept the instruments was not what he was expecting.  Face down on the floor in the corner was a young man in his mid twenties, howling his head off into the carpet, and wearing the most peculiar clothing.  A short top hat with goggles.  A slanted asymmetrical vest with red trim and buttons.  Red gloves that were missing the tips of the fingers.  Far too many belts to be normal.  He was wearing Rabbit’s clothing!  That was just NOT okay.  Reed didn’t know what this kid though he was doing stealing into the mansion and taking Rabbit’s clothes, but bellowing his head off in the music room was not the way to sneak back out.

Running out of air the young man choked, struggling with being able to inhale, and snapped his head up to meet Reed’s gaze.  His right eye was green, his left blue. 

No.

No way.

“Rabbit?”  Reed approached cautiously, kneeling beside the writhing person.  An idea struck him.  Grabbing the intruder’s head, Michael held it against his chest, holding the man in place.

“Pretend you’re going to play the melodica, fill the bellows.”

A heartbeat passed.  Then another.  Then a third.  And the strange person sucked in a lungful of air, gasping with the advice he had been given.  He breathed, then, in, out, over and over as he slowly calmed down.  Shaking fingers gripped Mike’s purple tank top.  He was listening to the human’s heart.

“Rabbit?”  The person latched onto Reed's chest nodded faintly.  “What happened?”

Pulling away, Rabbit’s frightened eyes misted over with tears.  Real tears, of water and salt, not oil.  And it was in that moment that it struck Mr. Reed.  Rabbit was human.


	2. Freckles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael took a moment to chew his tongue as he figured out exactly what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song this fic was written to: "The Painter" by Michael Reed.

Michael took a moment to chew his tongue as he figured out exactly what to do. 

Rabbit was human.  How exactly do you fix that?  IS it something you can fix?  How did something like this even happen?!  You know what, you know, don’t think about it.  That is what Mr. Reed decided to do at this point in time.  Don’t think about how it happened, just take care of Rabbit.

Because Rabbit was freaking out.  And that never ended well.  So Michael just held Rabbit’s shoulders while the ‘bot breathed, getting used to the idea of having to do so constantly.

“Rabbit, why were you screaming?”  That, though, was a question that needed to be answered.  If he was hurt, if a malfunction had carried over (don’t think on it, don’t think on it) to his human body and needed medical NOW then it had to be done.  Rabbit stiffly tilted his head, thinking on the question.

“I wo-wo-woke up and it was quiet.  And I didn’t feel my boiler, and then I fell, and then I couldn’t get up.  I thought I was…”

“You thought you were broken.”  Rabbit nodded.  “Good reason to scream.  Pretty sure if I woke up and had gears and a boiler all of a sudden that’d be my first reaction too.  Can you stand?”  Reed lifted himself from the ground, keeping a firm hand on the other’s shoulder.  Good idea.  Rabbit tried to stand and nearly toppled backwards, being caught by the quick-acting Michael before he took up residence on the ground again.

“You humans balance funny.”

“Yeah it’s all in the toes.”

“Toes?”

“Oh please Rabbit you’ve seen me barefoot often enough to know what toes are.  Spine has them for crying out loud.”

“Oh!  Does!”  Does?  Ah, ‘those.’  Sometimes Reed wondered where Rabbit picked up the accent.  He didn’t always have it, but when he did it developed in strange ways, such as calling him “Mista’ Reed.”  Reed honestly thought that it was just Rabbit’s way of annoying everyone.

“Yes, those.  Come on, we need to figure out if the others have this too.”

“Ya think Sp-Spine and Jon are human too?”  Oh.  Oh god.  Reed stopped in his guiding and steadying Rabbit, staring at him with the weirdest look.  Rabbit still had his faint stutter.  It wasn’t heavy, just a little jar now and then.  Everyone always thought it was a loop that was buried deep in his coding.  But now he wasn’t run on codes and ones and zeros and electricity, he was human, and he still had the light stutter.  Maybe it was habit?  Rabbit was walking and moving like a robot still, maybe it was just force of habit to have it?  Why would it be habit though?

“You still have the stutter.”

“What stutta?”

“You know, when you glitch and repeat words and sounds?  You still have that.”

“You thought it was a glitch?”

“Isn’t that what it is?”

“When I break inna song or loop a phrase, yea.  That’s a glitch.  ‘Specially the loop, I get stuck inna those sometimes.”

“So, wait, I’m lost.”

“You thought it was a glitch?”

“You mean Colonel Walter _built you_ with a stutter?”

“Maybe?”

“You glitch, **_AND_** stutter?”

“Does it matta?”

“Yeah!  I spent _hours_ digging in your codes to find that malfunction, and now you’re telling me it wasn’t a glitch, but you were built with it?!”

“Don’t get so mad Mista RRRReed.  Ya never asked.”  Rabbit was grinning.

“ _Ooooooh_ that is the _weakest_ \- You know what, never mind, doesn’t matter.  We need to wake up Sam and Steve and get everyone together.”  Reed pulled Rabbit along again, firmly keeping him upright as he worked to figure out how to move human legs.  Clockwork and steam were one thing, muscles and bones were quite another

“Why d’ya need all of us?”

“Because I’m only going to freak out once.  If this _has_ happened to The Jon and The Spine, I’d rather freak out over all three of you at one time rather than have three different melt downs.  And if they haven’t, then they can start to explain what to do.”

“Michael?”  Sam’s voice floated from around the corner, full of sleep and confusion. 

“Wait here.”  Mike hissed to Rabbit, leaving him leaning against the wall as he fought with balance once more.  He turned, alone, around the corner Reed almost ran head-long into Sam.

“Hey Sam!  Just the man I wanted to see.  Do me a favor will you?  Go wake up Steve, and tell him to see if Jon’s in the television room. Tell him that if Jon’s not, to wait for me to get there, because we need to find him.  He should be there though, he loves that movie.  Then go get The Spine and meet us in the same room, okay?”

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain it when I get there, and for all I know you might just see it before I can get there.”

“Huh?”

“Just, trust me on this, okay?  I’ll be there in five.” 

Sam nodded, half awake, and wandered back towards the hall he had come from to do as he was bid.  Reed dug the heels of his hands into his eyes.

“Mista Reed?  Can I come out now?”

“Yeah yeah, sure Rabbit.  Um.  Come with me, I need to get pants on.  Then we’ll meet up with the others okay?”

Waking up Steve had been somewhat easy.  Giving directions had been harder.  No one was really awake at five AM, and concentrating was difficult when you didn’t have the whole story.  But Sam did as he was told, and sent Steve on his merry way to find Jon.  Sam, then, went to get Spine.  The Jon had a habit of powering down for the night on the couch watching one of his favorite movies.  He rarely ever shut down anywhere else at home.  Rabbit would seldom shut down at all, preferring to wander the halls and play music at all hours and just make a nuisance of himself.  They’d find him, though, shut down in the strangest of places, and normally in the corners. 

The Spine, on the other hand, kept to a strict schedule, and always powered off in one of three places; the Hall of Wires, the traveling crates depending on if they were shipping the robots to cut travel cost for shows, or a closet not far from the front door.  The closet only ever happened when he was in a lonely mood and liked to be the first out of the house so he could be left alone.  Oddly enough, that also included attempting to color his metal a more flesh-tone hue, and walk around town.  More often than not, though, he was in the Hall of Wires. 

That was not the case today.

Sam checked the hall, and found it empty of the dismembered robot.  So he traveled to the front door, and knocked on the closet’s frame.

“Spine?  You in there?”

Spine opened his eyes, blinking in the dark as he yawned and stretched, his hand hitting the wall as it did each time he powered down in the hall closest.  The resounding thunk, though, came with a jolt of pain running through his knuckles. 

“Oof!  What?”  Snapping his hand back Spine Studied the wall a moment before turning to the offended fingers.  He flexed them, frowning at the red scrape that graced his pale skin.

Pale.. ski-

Skin.  He had skin.  Pale skin, which had a red scuff splayed across the ridges of his fingers that he had known for so long, but were totally new in this moment.  Skin.  Spine’s hand shook as he gently touched his face, feeling the warmth of human skin rather than the freezing cold metal that he had been plated with.

“Spine?”  Sam’s voice drew his attention to the door once more. A massive grin split his face in two as he threw open the door, nearly smacking Sam in the nose.

“SAM!”  Said man took a second look, and stared.  “Good morning Sam!  Come, we must find the others!”  With that, Spine took long bobbing strides through the entrance hall towards the stairs, not fully understanding any other way to move.  Noticing the lack of footsteps behind him, Spine turned to find Sam still staring, mouth open, at the empty closet.

“Come along Sam, we should find Michael at the very least.”  Back tracking, Spine prodded Sam’s arm lightly.  The man did not move.  With only a moment’s thought Spine, in his excitement, scooped up Sam and threw him over his shoulder, and strode up the steps once more. 

The first thing Michael noticed when he and Rabbit arrived in the television room were Sam and Steve, sitting on the couch with the blankest faces he had ever seen.

“Well, good to know you two have had your breakdown, mine’s coming soon and someone needs to be around.  I was right in guessing it hit you two too.”  He turned his attention to the almost seven foot tall man in the corner and the much shorter fluffy-haired young adult at his side.

Reed noted, as Rabbit jerkily joined them, just how much they matched their robotic selves.  Jon’s skin was neatly tanned, redbrown hair a mass of curls framing eyes so blue they could almost glow.  Well proportioned, bouncing on the balls of his feet, a small smile seemingly permanently affixed to his face.  Spine was pale as the wall, perhaps paler; the illusion completed by the stark black hair and vest, and just as lanky as he was tall.  Full lips, big round eyes, cheekbones so sharp you could cut a finger touching them.  And Rabbit stood partly hunched, arms drawn up with his hands at his shoulders.  His face was a mess of freckles, you could almost say his skin was red if it weren’t for the white ears sticking out wide from under his hat and the faint splotches that showed that his face did indeed hold freckles.  His head was completely bald, including the lack of eyebrows.  His miss-matched eyes darting from the other robots (could you even call them that now?) to the humans on the couch.

“So uh.”  Rabbit wiggled his fingers in nervous habit.  “Whata we do now?”

“That, Rabbit, is a great question.  Sam, Steve, we have humans.”

“I noticed.”  Steve’s voice was very quiet as he broke from his stupor.  “How did this happen?”

“That’s an excellent question Steve.”  Spine answered, his movements mirroring Rabbit’s in that they were still robotic in nature.  “The Jon and I last night were wishing on stars after the movie, and I may or may not have wished for an event of this nature to occur.”

“You wished to be human?”

“I, erm.  Yes.”

“And it happened?”

“It would appear so.”

“Great!”  Sam broke from his trance now, shaking his head as though to clear it.  “So we just need to wish back on a star again and get you all back to normal.  We live in a house where computers dump mustard on themselves as form of punishment, and there’s a haunted chair that comes back from the other side.  Wishing on a star can’t be that difficult.”

“Worth a try, but until then we-”

“’Scuse me?” 

“Yes Jon?”

“Michael, what if we don’t wanna change back?”

“Of course we wanna change back!  D-d-d-d-do you think this is fun or sumthin’?”

“Actually Rabbit, yes I do.  I wouldn’t have wished it otherwise now would I have?”

“Spine you don’t count, some of us actually _enjoy_ being a robot.  Yy-y-you never did, so you can’t tell me what ta do.”

“Rabbit, at this moment, we are flesh and blood.  Humans.  You are, finally, in all actuality, my older brother.  I suggest you act as it.”

“NO!  I refuse.  As is my brotherly right t’do so.  I wanna be a robot again, that’s how Pappy made me and there’s no reason not ta be.”

“There is _every_ reason not to be!  You can’t sleep, you can’t breathe, you can’t drink, or eat, or love, or _live_ Rabbit.  You’re a _thing_ , a scrap of metal that no one cares about!  But now, _now_ you’re human, and people will care, and you can live how you want to live.  You don’t have to answer to programming and repairs and glitches and malfunctions.  You can be real.”

“ ** _I AM REAL_**.”

“No Rabbit, you’re a figment of a brilliant man’s imagination that he made physical in metal.  You weren’t real.  But you are now.”

“I have alww-w-w-ways been real, and ssssssssssso have you!  Just because we are metal doesn’t mean we don’t got souls Spine.  You you you think I answer to _programming_?  I thought you was supposed ta be the smart one.”

“Alright alright that’s enough!”  Sam put himself between the arguing brothers; one hand lowering Spine’s clenched fists as the other pushed back on Rabbit’s chest to keep him from lunging at his middle brother.  “Look, we’ll figure out how this happened, and for those that want it fixed we’ll figure out how to do so.  Got it?  Now cool your jets.  Michael’s right, we need to figure out what to do right this moment with the three of you.”

“Thank you Sam.  Considering as it’s morning, Steve, how about you take these three down and start breakfast?  I know I’m hungry, I’m sure you guys are, and over breakfast we can have a real talk about what is going on.  Fair?”  This was met with mutters of approval, and even Rabbit perked up at the idea of actually eating food.  Not that he’d admit it.  “Good, go ahead, I’ll join you in a bit.”

Michael turned and marched out of the room.  Sam counted to three before following, popping his head out the door just in time to see him round a corner heading away from the kitchen.

“Go ahead Steve, I’ll get Mike and we’ll catch up.”  Without waiting for a reply, the drummer took off to catch up with the One Man Band.  As he turned the same corner, he watched Michael’s knees give out, his legs wobble, and the man fall gracelessly to the floor before curling into a ball.  Sam approached, sat on the floor behind him, and waited.  He didn’t have long.

“They’re human.”

“Yeah, appears that way.”

“They’re **_human_ ** Sam.”

“So I’ve seen.”

“I don’t, but, _how_?”

“Good question.  Think the star thing is true?”

“They’re human.”

“Yep.”

“Sam, I have seen the inside of Rabbit’s chest more times than I care to remember.  They are human Sam.  Human.  What do I do?  My family takes care of robots, not humans.  I wasn’t trained for this.”

“Well, you take care of us too don’t you?  They haven’t changed, not really.  You just don’t have to oil their joints and give them Pepsi anymore.  I would think it’d be pretty much the same as always, just without the screws and bolts.  A few more mouths to feed, but otherwise not much else has changed.”

“Everything has changed Sam.”

“Not if you don’t let it.  The guys are still the guys.  Rabbit is still Rabbit, Spine is still Spine, and Jon is still Jon.  Their personality didn’t change just because their brains are in human bodies you know.  I don’t think it’ll be as different as you think.”

Michael was quiet at that.  The two of them let the silence settle around them for a bit, taking comfort in a moment of piece.  Reed let his thoughts race around and around each other, trying to sort out exactly how life was going to change until they could get the robots back as robots.  Sam let him have his freak out.  After all, Sam had been brought in to work on a band.  Mike had been raised to live with them.  Their worlds were vastly different in their perspective of the Steam Powered Giraffe.  But, eventually, all insanity comes to an end.

So when Mike finally sat back up, rubbing his face and sighing deeply, Sam knew they’d be just fine.

“Come on.  Let’s save Steve.  Rabbit’ll probably choke on French toast, Jon won’t know how to say no to syrup, and there’s no way I’m letting Spine and Steve handle them alone.”

Sam thumped him on the back, grinning under his mustache.

“Thata boy Mike, that’s how you handle a Walter Manor misshap.” 


End file.
